It will be up to Ottawa — not Quebec — to decide what happens to immigrants who fail the values and French tests that the Coalition Avenir Québec wants to introduce, leader François Legault said on Friday.

“Ask that to Mr. Trudeau,” Legault said. “It’s not my responsibility. I’m trying to become premier of Quebec, not prime minister of Canada.”

If the CAQ is elected on Oct. 1, it would require economic immigrants to Quebec to pass tests on the province’s values and language within three years in order to obtain a Quebec Selection Certificate. Immigrants who come to Canada through Quebec’s economic immigration system need that certificate before they can apply for permanent residency from the federal government.

“There’s an agreement right now between Canada and Quebec regarding economic immigration. In this agreement, it says that the Quebec government decides, for the first step, to issue or not (issue) a selection certificate,” Legault said. “If we don’t issue the selection certificate, it becomes the responsibility of the federal government, if you have questions after that, you must ask Mr. Trudeau’s government.”

Legault said a CAQ government would inform the federal government when immigrants fail the tests.

The CAQ wants to reopen the agreement with Ottawa, which gives the province the ability to pick economic immigrants, as part of its plan to reduce the number of immigrants by more than 10,000 people per year.

Legault has said that by reducing the number of immigrants to the province, Quebec will be able to do a better job of integrating new arrivals and that a larger number of immigrants will ultimately stay in the province. Just over a quarter of immigrants who arrive in Quebec eventually leave, Legault has said, a figure that is supported by data from the provincial immigration ministry.

The CAQ also wants Quebec to take control of a federal program that allows people living in Canada to sponsor members of their family as immigrants.

However, immigrants who come through the federal family reunification program are currently more likely to stay in Quebec than those who come through the provincial selection process.

83.3 per cent of immigrants who arrived in Quebec through the family reunification program between 2005 and 2015 were still living in Quebec in January 2017, according to a study by Quebec’s immigration ministry, compared to 69.9 per cent of economic immigrants.

“But they don’t necessarily speak French,” Legault said.

Legault wants immigrants who arrive through the family reunification program to also be required pass the values and language tests before they allowed to stay permanently.

“I think three conditions are important: finding a job, staying in Quebec; French; and values,” he said. “We have four big failures of the Liberal government for the last 15 years: too many (immigrants) leave Quebec, too many don’t know French, too many didn’t pass a values test and too many are unemployed. After five years, the total is 14.1 per cent, it’s triple the unemployment rate in Quebec.”

Legault made the comments during a visit to the party’s “war room” in Montreal, where he met with candidates and volunteers.

Legault also faced questions about what he said during the Thursday night’s leaders’ debate.

At one point, Legault appears to mutter “ta yeule” — or shut up — after Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée said millionaires would be the biggest beneficiaries of Legault’s plan to cut school taxes.

But Legault claimed on Friday he actually said “ayoye,” an expression of pain.

“I said ayoye because he said that the reduction of school taxes will only benefit rich” people,” Legault said. The CAQ leader said he’s spoken to seniors living on relatively small pensions who would benefit from the cut.

Under the Liberals, school taxes have doubled, but “of course, pensions didn’t double,” Legault said.

School taxes are based on the assessed value of residential property.

While only property owners would see the tax cut, Legault said people who rent would also see a benefit.

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